A California Christmas (Silver Springs #7) - Brenda Novak Page 0,49
regret it.”
He caught her wrists. “What about afterward? What about tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow I can go back to trying to rebuild my life, and we can pretend this never happened. This is just a...a time-out. A onetime thing. Neither one of us is looking for a relationship, so what can it hurt? We’re both consenting adults, and we don’t have any emotional expectations.”
He had to admit she made a great case.
“Are you in?” she asked.
When he hesitated, she faltered. “Dallas? Are you saying no?”
“I’m definitely not saying no. I’m simply trying to...clarify. Are you sure you won’t be upset with yourself, or me, in the morning? You won’t be embarrassed to see me? You won’t give up your new job, leave Silver Springs and head back to your apartment to spend Christmas alone? Nothing will change?”
“I’m positive.”
She sounded so definite he knew he was going to move forward despite the fact that he probably shouldn’t.
“Then what do we have to lose?” he said, and pulled her back down on top of him before rolling her onto her back. “But I say we start over. If this is only going to happen once, there’s no way I want to race for the finish line.”
* * *
Emery had never been one for casual sex. She knew it could create all kinds of problems. Before she started seeing Ethan, she’d been so caught up in her work she hadn’t even gone out very often. She’d put up a profile on a dating site and left it there, but after meeting several of the men who contacted her, she’d grown discouraged and quit logging in or following up. She supposed that was how she fell into a relationship with Ethan—there was no one else in her life, and she got worn down from interacting with him every day.
Considering that abstinence was her typical MO, at least when she wasn’t dating someone, she couldn’t believe she was doing what she was doing with Dallas, and that she’d been the one to encourage it. This was the most sexually aggressive she’d ever been. But she guessed that she was, in part, making a statement. This was her way of flipping Ethan off for wrecking her life, her way of refusing to allow what he did, or the judgments of those who saw the video he’d posted, to stop her from enjoying her sexuality.
It didn’t hurt that Dallas was built as well as he was, that he could kiss better than anyone she’d ever kissed before or that she genuinely liked and trusted him.
They made out for so long she was beginning to wonder if he was still hesitant to go further. But once he turned his attention to the rest of her body, she understood why he’d waited. By then she was so excited, she was especially sensitive to his touch and couldn’t help gasping when his mouth moved to her breast and his fingers slid even lower.
“God, that’s good,” she whispered and let go, allowed him full access without holding back. So when he finally pushed inside her, she thought she might climax immediately. He must’ve been close to climax, too, because he lowered himself to his elbows and kissed her again. Although she enjoyed the kiss, like all the others before it, she also understood he was taking a slight break from focusing on what was going on below the waist, so that he could maintain control.
“I’ve never made love on the beach,” she said as she waited.
He lifted his head. “Me, either. Now I’ll be ruined for doing it anywhere else.”
“You’ll have to bring every woman you want back here.” It was completely the wrong time to make such a statement. But she needed to remind herself not to get too caught up in what they were doing. This didn’t mean anything. That was the point of casual sex.
“I’d rather not talk about other women right now,” he said.
“Smart man,” she teased.
He didn’t keep the banter going. She was trying to put some emotional distance between them—their lovemaking was growing pretty feverish and intense and all-consuming—but he wasn’t playing along. From what she could tell, he welcomed the intensity, didn’t seem concerned with emotional distance, because he turned the focus back on her, which enhanced the overall experience but did little to help her maintain the proper perspective.
“Are you cold?” he asked when she suddenly quit responding, for the first time worried that they might be making a big mistake. “We can stop.”